I find this a difficult topic to get a handle on. To be honest, Caritas hasn’t been very successful in helping clients get work through staffing agencies. I recently picked the brains of several Austin staffing agencies and refugee employment colleagues, including Jaci Hernandez with Lutheran Family Services in Colorado, who comes from a staffing agency background. JACKPOT! She gave me great ideas, which I’ll attempt to share here.
Caritas strategy has been to explain the process and advantages to clients and let them apply on their own. It has been effective in helping clients understand the staffing agency structure and to identify jobs advertised through staffing agencies, but hasn’t gotten anyone a job. Lutheran Family Services has organized a much more structured approach with a screening, selection and referral process targeting staffing agencies. So far this year, it’s delivered approximately 35 jobs for qualified clients.
Jaci says, “the most successful approach has been finding names of companies that use staffing agencies, calling the company and “selling” our services to them and asking them for the staffing agency info and hiring manager. When contacting the hiring managers at the agency, use the referral from their client (the employer) as an “in” and set up a face to face meeting.” I wonder if it might be possible to actually get the company to mention to the agency that they would like to see qualified refugee clients?
Strong English and US workplace skills are critical for successful placements, as is the ability to move very quickly with well screened clients. Staffing agencies fill requests for specific skill sets mandated by employers, most of which require English and an extremely short turnaround. Staffing agency paperwork and processes also require strong English comprehension. If clients can’t succeed quickly in placements, employers are not satisfied and staffing agencies lose money. That’s the bottom line, rather than helping refugees or any other disadvantaged population. Here are a few process points that can make this work:
Find out typical jobs agencies need to fill and pre-screen clients
This lets you know who would be good in advance. Then, when there’s an opening, you don’t have to waste time with screening. You could brief the clients about how it will work during screening so they are ready and available to move quickly.
Help a few clients complete the application even when there are no jobs.
The agency will begin to see that you are a great source of fast turnaround and reliable clients. And, a client might get a job just because they were ready to go.
Be ready to move VERY quickly, when an opening comes up.
Have resumes and other information at hand. Consider completing the online application yourself, rather than spending the time to have the client come in and do it with you.
Don’t refer anyone who isn’t qualified.
Several refugee employment programs I talked to had lost contacts when the clients they referred didn't work out. One of the staffing agencies I talked to is one we lost and they were painfully frank about why they wouldn't work with refugee agencies again.
Based on her experience on both sides of this employment pathway, Jaci says, “the most important thing to keep in mind is that staffing is a money motivated business, so second chances aren’t something they give very often to both us and the clients.”
Jaci gave me a write-up she uses internally to explain the process she’s developed and to help her team be more successful with staffing agencies. After much thought, I couldn’t explain it any better. So, she’s given me permission to share her document. I’ve also attached the handout I developed for clients and use in our Job Club. As I compare it to Jaci’s explanation, I feel good that it reflects the same basic understanding that she conveys, only in a simplified format for non-native readers of English. Both documents are available as free downloads on the Refugeeworks website.
In my experience, we've been successful with agencies only two ways. 1 is when we find a way to get to know the owner of the agency and he/she works with us to find contracts that they used to have to turn down because the wage point didn't allow for reliable drug-free workers that would stick. Then we are working on the same team with each other finding places to plug together. The other way is when we have a strong top-down relationship with the company and they request our refugee clients (sometimes by name). Basically, the inside angle is that for the staffing agency it's a 'no-risk' placement because they can 'wash their hands' if the company asked for the person by name. For the company, sometimes they get a 'referral discount' on the billing rate because the staffers didn't have to find or recruit the person. Those are the only two ways we've had consistent and happy placements in staffing agency situations.
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